The plant produced around 200,000 tonnes of rails per year

Around 250 workers have been made redundant at the plant, which produced an average of 200,000 tonnes of steel rails each year.

Friday's closure is being blamed on demand for 108m-long tracks, which cannot be made at the site. Production is being moved to Scunthorpe.

It marks the end of more than 130 years of steel production in Workington.

The plant cannot be expanded to produce 108m rails - the industry standard length, equivalent to 118 yards - because it is positioned between the sea and the rail line running along the Cumbrian coast, according to Corus.

Site redevelopment

Phil Dobson, the plant's works operations manager, said: "Basically the site is in the wrong direction. It goes from the sea to the rail tracks and it needs to be the other way round to make 108m rails.

"I'm sure Corus would have built them here with the skills people have in Workington if we could have put a 108m rail in, but we can't.

"We've had to best utilise our other plants in Corus - hence the Scunthorpe plant was chosen to build the rail."

A Project Corus taskforce has been set up to consider how the site can be redeveloped.